43191: Question about the “immortal boys”

Are the “immortal boys” or “boys of everlasting youth” Muslim children who died in infancy?.

Praise be to Allaah.

Allaah says concerning
the people of Paradise (interpretation of the meaning):

“Immortal boys will go
around them (serving)”

[al-Waaqi’ah 56:17]

And Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):

“And round about them
will (serve) boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think
them scattered pearls”
[al-Insaan :19]

Ibn Katheer (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: This means that some of the children of Paradise
will go around to serve the people of Paradise. Mukhalladoon
(translated here as “immortal” and as “of everlasting youth”) means that
they will appear in one form which will never change; they will not grow
older than that age. Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: They
are young boys who will never die.

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: Abu ‘Ubaydah and al-Fara’ said: Mukhalladoon
means that they will not grow old or change. If a man has grown old and has
not turned grey, the Arabs describe him as mukhallad; or if a man
still has his teeth when he has grown old, they call him mukhallad.

The verse in Soorat
al-Insaan, where Allaah describes them as (interpretation of the meaning):

“If you see them, you would think them
scattered pearls”

[al-Insaan 76:19]

means, if you saw them
as they go about tending to their masters’ needs, because there are so many
of them, their faces are so bright and their colours and their garments are
so beautiful, you would think that they were scattered pearls. There can be
no more beautiful comparison or more beautiful scene than pearls scattered
in a place of beauty.

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: Allaah likens them to scattered pearls because of
their whiteness and beautiful appearance.

The fact that they are
scattered means two things:

1 – It indicates that they
are not idle, rather they are moving about, serving and tending to the
people’s needs

2 – If pearls are
scattered, especially against a background of gold or silk, it enhances
their beauty more than if they are gathered in one place.

The scholars differed as to
who these boys are.

It was narrated from ‘Ali
ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with him) and al-Hasan al-Basri that
what is meant by these boys is the children of the Muslims who died in
infancy and have no good or bad deeds on their records.

It was narrated that
Salmaan (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The children of the
mushrikeen are the servants of the people of Paradise.

Al-Hasan said: They have no
good deeds for which they are to be rewarded and no bad deeds for which they
are to be punished, so they are put in this situation.

Shaykh al-Islam (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: There is no basis for this opinion. Majmoo’
al-Fataawa, 4/279

Ibn al-Qayyim (may
Allaah have mercy on him) said: A hadeeth was narrated concerning that which
cannot be proven.

And it was said that these
boys are created by Allaah for the people of Paradise, to go around among
them as He wills, without being born (in the usual manner).

This final view is the one
which was favoured by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on
him). He was asked about these boys: Are they the children of the people of
Paradise?

He replied: The boys who
will go around among the people of Paradise are among those who are created
for Paradise; they are not the children of people of this world. Rather if
the children of people of this world enter Paradise, they will given a
perfect form like the other people of Paradise, in the form of Adam, aged
thirty-three and sixty cubits tall. It was also narrated that their width
will be seven cubits.

See Majmoo’ al-Fataawa,
4/312.

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah
have mercy on him) also preferred this view and said: It is most likely that
these boys will be created from Paradise, like al-hoor al-‘ayn, as servants
for them… They are not their children. By Allaah's grace He will cause their
children to be served alongside them, not to become servants to them.